£476m Olympics underspend owed to Britain’s communities

14 June 2012

Hugh Robertson MP, Minister for Sport and the Olympics has said that ‘all being well we should be able to hand half a billion pounds back to the Treasury’.

But the Directory of Social Change believe that, as billions have gone to support the Games from lottery revenues, £425 million of this cash should be refunded to the Big Lottery Fund, which supports charities and community groups doing vital work in communities across Britain.

They are now leading the Big Lottery Refund campaign and Jay Kennedy, Head of Policy at the Directory of Social Change (DSC), said ‘It will be an utter outrage – and verging on money laundering – if lottery revenues raided by the Government to fund the Olympics go back to the Treasury. This money was taken away from supporting vulnerable people and communities across this country at a time when they needed it most. Government needs to keep its promises and do the right thing – any underspend must be used to refund the Lottery as soon as possible.’

DSC has developed a website to support the campaign, www.biglotteryrefund.org.uk, to gather and mobilise supporters in the run up to the Games and beyond if necessary.